TTT: Self Care

Today’s Tuesday Top Tips are tying in with last weeks Monday Make – which is our spoonie bracelets. When you’re chronically ill, one of the most important things in life is looking after yourself. It’s often easy to remember all our commitments and promises to other people, and to forget about our commitments to ourselves – like keeping enough spoons in our back pocket. So here are a few tips I use to get through even the worst days.

1.       Stay Hydrated. I’m not even joking, being hydrated can make the world of difference to how you feel. If you’re anything like me, and hate water… plan ahead. On a good day, I slice up a load of fresh lemons and put the slices in the freezer (one day separated on baking paper, and then you can just pop them in a freezer bag) – that way you can just grab a slice from the freezer and have cool lemon water whenever you need it… the same goes for cucumber too if that’s your flavour. Alternatively if you’ve got an infuser bottle, you can use frozen berries in the fruit compartment instead of fresh.

2.       Treat yourself like your own best friend. It sounds weird, but bear with me for a moment. If you went round to your best friends house, and they were sat on the sofa, still in their PJs, no make-up, not brushed their hair and they said ‘excuse the mess, I’m having a really bad day’…. Would you berate them for not tidying up on a bad day like you berate yourself? No, you’d tell them to sit back and relax while you popped the kettle on – so be your own best friend, cut yourself some slack on the bad days, it’s not every day, and it does make a difference.



3.       Know what cheers you up – is it watching a few episodes of your favourite TV show, is it reading a book, or maybe crochet? Give yourself a break, don’t feel bad if you need to soak in a bath – I’m pretty infamous in my house for having 2 hour long baths…. I could soak for a lifetime. Give yourself a few hours to truly just be, doing the things that really relax you – no pressures, no stresses.

4.      Find something low energy, that is also a little bit productive. No, I’m not talking about re-organising your kitchen cupboards. I like to sit and write some blog posts in advance on a difficult day. Maybe you could write a shopping list, or a list of the things you’d like to do when you’re feeling better – perhaps you can add a couple of rows to your knitting project, or make that phonecall to your grandma that you’ve been putting off. Accomplishing something, no matter how small, can really make a difference with how you feel.

5. Treat yourself. If you can afford it, buy something that makes you happy. If you can’t – allow yourself a sweet treat from the cupboard, maybe a hot chocolate, or perhaps there’s an ice-cream in the freezer with your name on it. It says in many religions ‘treat others as you yourself would wish to be treated’ but I think my overarching message today is to treat yourself as you treat other people too.

6. Last but not least… accept help. I’m lucky, I’ve family and friends that love me, and that understand my illness – sometimes it’s hard to remember to share when I’m feeling bad, but once they know, they’re so understanding. Even littlest princess likes to help by giving mama some kisses to make me feel better. Know that it’s not every day, and on the better days you can give back, so allow yourself to be helped – again, going back to point 2, you’d want to help your best friend on a day like this right? So let your best friends help you.